She’d held herself apart for so long. Her life had been safe. She’d closed herself off, sinking into intellectualism and professionalism, but it had left her behind walls. Those walls had crumbled and it was time to decide if she was going to rebuild them or find a new life.

She held on to Armie and cried out the stress of the day.

He shifted and drew her close, resting her head on his chest as he let her cry.

She fell asleep to the sound of his heart beating. Safe, this time, didn’t mean alone.

chapter ten

The knock on the door damn near shook the house. It made him shoot out of bed, but Lila merely turned over and yawned before her breathing became easy again. The woman needed sleep and according to the clock on the nightstand, she should have at least another forty-five minutes before she had to get up.

The knocking began again and he hustled to drag on his slacks. The shirt would have to wait because he was about to have a conversation with whoever was knocking on the door at damn 7:14 in the morning.

He worked his way around the plastic containers and nearly tripped on a surprising amount of buttons, but he managed to get to the door before a third set of thunder shook the place. “What? Did you know it is illegal to knock on the door before eight a.m.?”

He asked the question as he flung the door open and then had to sigh because he couldn’t tell the two people standing there to go away. Remy and Lisa Guidry were on Lila’s doorstep. Her sister looked like she hadn’t slept and Remy had a fierce frown on his face.

“You started making up new laws now?” Remy asked.

It had been worth a try. Sometimes he could intimidate people into doing the right thing. Remy wasn’t one of those people. “It would have been a misdemeanor. I take it you heard about what happened yesterday? Come on in, but she’s asleep and she needs it. I’m not waking her up until I have to.”

Not even for her sister. Lisa could wait forty-five minutes more to assure herself that Lila was okay.

Lisa stepped inside, followed by her husband. “I was so worried when she didn’t answer her phone. She always has her phone on her. I didn’t hear about what happened until late last night. I tried to call but it went to voice mail.”

“We had a couple of business meetings and then we went out to dinner,” Remy explained. “When we got back to the hotel, I called Seraphina to see how things had gone at the marina. She told us what happened.”